Five Actors Who Deserve Better Roles

There are some actors who get all kinds of great roles of all shapes and sizes, but what about the talented actors who just can't seem to get the kind of work they more than deserve? Thanks to renewed discussion about one of the actors in this article, I've decided to examine five actors who deserve more and better work than they're currently getting in Hollywood.

Judy Greer
This is the actor that's been receiving a lot of media attention lately, with her shamefully small roles in Tomorrowland (she's not even in that one for a whole minute!), Jurassic World and Ant-Man just bringing up the issue that Greer is not getting the sort of work she's more than ready for. Thankfully, she's at least the lead on an FX comedy (Married), but dammit, she should be leading some feature comedies by now, not stuck in a small role in the Entourage movie.

Octavia Spencer
For many Oscar winners, it's easy to parlay that award glory to a lucrative career. Despite winning Best Supporting Actress in 2012 for her memorable role in The Help, Spencers most prominent work since then has been lead roles in Black & White and the cancelled 2014 FOX television drama Red Band Society. Her dramatic turns in the Fruitvale Station and Snowpiercer (the latter mixing in moments of dark comedy) prove she's got the chops, so why on Earth isn't she headling more motion pictures?

James Marsden
He was a winning Corny Collins in Hairspray. He charmed the dickens out of any viewer in Enchanted. Yes, 2007, the year both of those movies debuted, seemed to be the start of James Marsdens impressive Hollywood career. Except, things haven't gone that way at all, with him bizarrely being used mainly in cinema as an antagonist whose main characteristic is being a douche (see: 2 Guns, Anchorman 2, Unfinished Business). What a waste of a dude whose got such endless charisma and talent.

Ken Watanabe
What I love about Watanabe is how much presence he conveys in the simplest of mannerisms or line delivery. Just the delivery of any given piece of dialogue offers him the chance to express years of pain, anguish or triumph. It is nice to see him be given major roles in smash hit blockbusters like Inception and Godzilla, but boy howdy, it'd be nice to see him in more films. Surely there are better uses of his acting skills than Transformers: Age of Extinction?

Mary-Louise Parker
I'll say this; at least Mary-Louise Parker had a lead role on a Showtime drama (Weeds) that ran for seven years. But her lack of work since then has been astonishing, especially since her memorable turn in Red demonstrated her strong comedic abilities. Here's an idea; how about giving Mary-Louise Parker and Judy Greer a buddy cop movie, with James Marsden as a scene-stealing goofball, Octavia Spencer as a rival cop and Ken Watanabe as the bad guy, a corrupt politician?

There ya go. Now that sounds like a movie that could be both fun and give these talented actors something of substance to do. What a combo!